Mark Cruz to lead Indian Health Service amid staffing and infrastructure challenges
Native American NewsPublished: Aug. 09, 2026, 1:18 p. m. Mark Cruz, senior Health and Human Services advisor and citizen of the Klamath Tribes, poses for a portrait at the Pueblo of Sandia, in central New. . .
Native American NewsPublished: Aug. 09, 2026, 1:18 p. m. Mark Cruz, senior Health and Human Services advisor and citizen of the Klamath Tribes, poses for a portrait at the Pueblo of Sandia, in central New Mexico, near Albuquerque, on Friday, March 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Savannah Peters)AP Photo/Savannah PetersALBUQUERQUE, N. M. (AP) — The U. S. Senate voted Friday to confirm Mark Cruz, a citizen of the Klamath Tribes, to lead the federal agency that provides healthcare for some 2. 8 million Native American and Alaska Native patients. Cruz was confirmed to serve a four-year term as director of the Indian Health Service, a position that has sat vacant since late 2025. At his July confirmation hearing, Cruz said he would advocate “ferociously” to improve health outcomes in Indian Country and bring lived experience to the role. “My family, my friends and my tribal community will live with the consequences of the work I do for decades to come,” Cruz told the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. Cruz was confirmed by a 51-47 vote along withmore than 70 other nomineesof President Donald Trump — one of the Senate’s last actions before taking an August recess. Cruz is a senior adviser on tribal health toHealth Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and will retain that newly created role while leading the IHS. In Trump’s first administration, Cruz oversaw the Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development under the U. S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. The IHS operates 21 hospitals and 78 smaller health centers nationwide as part of the federal government’s legal responsibility to provide healthcare for Native Americans. The average age of those facilities is around 40 years old and one-third are in “poor” physical condition, according to a 2023 U. S. Government Accountability Office report. Cruz assumes leadership of an agency grappling with stubbornly high provider vacancy rates and a30-year backlogof facilities in need of replacement. He has pledged to address those challenges,better insulatetribal health programs from federal budget impasses and fundoverhead coststribes take on when they manage their own healthcare systems. In a statement Friday, the National Congress of American Indians said Cruz’s confirmation comes at a “critical time. ”“We congratulate him on his confirmation and look forward to working together to ensure the federal government fully upholds itstrust and treaty obligations,” NCAI executive director Larry Wright Jr. said. MORE BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESSThe National Indian Health Board also applauded Cruz’s confirmation. By that nonprofit’s most recent estimate, it would take some $73 billion for the IHS to fully meet the healthcare needs of tribal nations. For fiscal year 2026, Congress appropriated just over $8 billion to fund the IHS. ___This story is published through theGlobal Indigenous Reporting Networkat The Associated Press.